How close was I? If you’re anything like when I first started writing for Internet audiences, I’d imagine I’m right on.

That’s because these are the traffic methods that come easily to you. You understand them. They’re always in the forefront of your mind. You always remember to do them.

But, the truth is, by relying only on these strategies, you’re letting your content down.

You’re missing out on so many easy to use methods that will drive traffic to your page in no time at all.

And, here’s the real kicker:

You already know most of them. You just forget to use them.

Don’t worry though; that’s going to change with this article. You’re going to learn how to drive traffic to your blog in little to no time. In return, you’ll get that sweet, sweet traffic your content deserves.

#2: Build Trust By Linking Out To Reputable Sites

Okay, I’m not going to send you on a whole SEO link building campaign. Because that’s another topic for another day. So don’t worry about getting people to link back to your site right now.

But right now, you can link to other reputable sites to drive traffic to your blog. It’s as easy as backing up your points with data or referencing scientific studies, including articles at the end of your article, or even simply linking back to an authority site when you quote them.

Building Relationships

In the words of Jeff Goins, “It’s not who you know, it’s who you’ve helped.”

And by linking out to these authority sites, you’re helping them. You’ve given them something valuable that plays a big role in their success.

If you reach out to them and let them know that you’ve linked to them, there’s a really good chance they’ll share your content with their audience. And that means you get more exposure and traffic.

But, that’s not the only benefits for you. Consumers see bloggers as one of the biggest influencers in how they choose a product. In fact, according to Technorati research, 31% of people say they’ll use a blog to choose a product.

If you can get these bloggers to tweet, share, and interact with you (or feature them on your site) they’re more likely to buy into your brand, which will drive traffic back to your content.

#3: Do Influencer Interviews

Interviews seem to have become the realm of Podcasters and YouTube stars.

But, why?

Getting influencers (people who have made a name for themselves in your niche) to appear on your blog is a direct brand endorsement. That’s powerful because 92% of people say they trust this earned media more than any other form of advertising.

So when they see a person they know sharing or tweeting about your blog, they take notice. Even if it’s just to promote their own interview.

Boost Blog Traffic wrote an excellent article on how to get influencers to interview with you right here.

Pro Tip: If you decide interviewing an influencer is something to check out, simply record the conversation as a podcast and embed it in the blog post you’ll write. Pat Flynn just released an embeddable tool to help you put those podcasts right in your blog posts. Now there’s no reason not to get started.

#4: Focus On Long Tail Keywords

You’re probably using a tool like Yoast SEO, right? So you can put keywords into your posts and get to a good level of SEO for the piece of content.

Now, there is nothing wrong with optimizing it this way. After all, keywords are what people search for.

But, you probably do a little Keyword Planner research and come up with a two- or three-letter keyword like:

Traffic methods

Drive traffic

Good blogging

Because they get a good amount of searches and they seem to fit the bill. But, if you’re not an SEO wizard by trade, you’re going to struggle to rank anywhere near the top results for keywords like this. Unless you’re already an established authority.

That’s where long tail keywords come in.

By switching to long tail keywords, Neil Patel managed to go from 89,000 visitors per month to 174,000 people per month in a 14-month period. That’s a 91% increase in traffic from search engines.

If you’re not sure what a long-tail keyword is, here’s a quick definition:

Now, you can swap out the word ‘buy’ there for ‘learn’ and it’s exactly the same for your content.

The longer it gets, the more specific it is. The more specific it is, the better you can optimize your blog for it because there will naturally be less competition.

This is really specific to your niche and your site, so there’s no one-size-fits-all way to find these keywords. However, you can use tools like SERPed or AdWords to analyze your short keywords and build them into long-tail keywords.

#5: Get Involved In Q&A Sites

The reason your content (or blog or platform) exists is for one reason:

To help people answer their questions.

Each piece of content you create answers a question in your niche. No matter how big or small, that’s the purpose behind it. And you’ve probably got a lot of answers to a lot of questions by now, haven’t you?

Instead of hoping people stumble across your answers, it’s time to go straight to the source and put your well-researched and expertly written content in front of the people who are asking all the questions.

If you don’t know what Quora is, it’s a question and answer site. And, to you, it’s now a powerful traffic-driving tool.

The smart marketers over at WishPond have used it to build up to 27,000 views a month from their Quora answers.

And it’s pretty simple to do.

Let’s say you run a copywriting or content marketing blog. You’d search the broad topic that you blog about, and ‘follow’ it:

Then read through a few pages of questions to find ones that:

Have lots of engagement

You have the content to answer

You can provide a valuable answer to

That are either new or get around 1,000 views a month

Like this one right here (the comment from Sarah is the top answer right now)…

Click on it, and take a look at what they’ve actually asked:

Then answer the question in your way, giving plenty of value throughout. Think of it like a mini blog post where you can link back to yourself throughout, without them needing to click the link to get the value.

Like this one that starts with a link:

Has a meaty, value-filled middle. And then finishes with a link back to their site:

This particular answer has 26,000 views. That means even if only 1% of people click that link, there’s still 2,600 people who have clicked through to their site!

If you answer questions regularly and with enough detail, the traffic you can drive really has no limits.

How To Drive Traffic To Your Blog? Pick One, Run With It…

There you have it.

Five easy-to-remember and implement traffic-driving strategies that you can use right now. Here they are again, in short:

Use an image every 75–100 words: Add a relevant image every 100 words to break up your article, boost on-page times, and boost social share that will drive traffic to your blog.

Link out to reputable sites in your niche: This builds trust, establishes relationships, and drives traffic.

Do influencer interviews: Tap into an established traffic stream, get brand endorsements, and create a strong image.

Focus on long tail keywords: Focus on less competition, target specific users’ search intent, get more search traffic.

Get involved with Q&A sessions: Use sites like Quora to get the content you already have in front of people who need to answers you’ve given.

Now, I have a challenge for you.

Pick one of these strategies and commit to doing it every month. Comment on this post with your choice. Then track the results. It could be the influx of traffic you’ve been waiting for.

Great stuff James, it’s good to get back to basics every now and then. Although I have to say that 1 image per 100 words sounds a lot (since we struggle to find relevant content for featured images already), but the research is quite interesting.

Awesome post James. I just started my blog about 2 months ago and found this post really informative and helpful. You’re right, those initial topics were the first things that came to my mind. This list of optomizing methods seem like the new must-haves to really grow your blog and reach its full potential. Thank you for this

I got your point next time I use images for 100 words, and try to include outbound links to reputable sites, start participating on Q&A sites, I never don any did interview series till now I will try to include them on my blog, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge about driving traffic to blog, see you soon.